New members join, but don't post. What worked for your community?

Most common problem online communities face is - new members join, but do not post. They just read a few posts, some like content and then never return.

I faced this problem in the early days of CrazyEngineers. I remember we had about 1000 members but only 5 members would return and participate. The member count kept growing but the active member count didn't.

What worked for me was giving up on the crowd. I started focusing on the active members, the ones who really cared for the community.

• I DM'd them and asked follow-up questions.

• I praised them openly and through DMs

• I was proactive in recognising their contributions

Those little actions added and slowly a few other members started participating. But that was back in 2006 - almost 20 years ago. I want to know what's working for you?